Search form

This Week in Health & Medicine

18th August 2017

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - AUGUST 12: Rescue workers move victims on stretchers after car plowed through a crowd of counter-demonstrators marching through the downtown shopping district August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. The car plowed through the crowed following the shutdown of the 'Unite the Right' rally by police after white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' and counter-protesters clashed near Emancipation Park, where a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is slated to be removed. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Aaron van Dorn

New York office, The Lancet

This week in health and medicine news from The Lancet USA, Florida uses deceptive telephone poll to switch sick kids to less expensive Medicaid plans, the Trump Administration agrees to pay ACA cost sharing reductions for August, and the American Cancer Society and the Cleveland Clinic have decided to cancel fundraisers scheduled for Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago after Trump’s statements following the events in Charlottesville.

Florida Uses Telephone Survey to Justify Switching Kids’ Insurance

A group of Florida pediatricians are accusing the Republican-controlled state government of using a duplicitous telephone survey question to switch over 13,000 children from a children’s Medicaid health insurance program that specializes in children with severe health problems to one that did not cover – or did not have access to doctors who could perform – essential health services that children need. The state asked parents if their children was “limited in his ability to do things other children can do,” and used a no response – whether the child had severe health problems or not – as an excuse to remove children from the Children's Medical Services, a part of Florida’s Medicaid program that specializes in helping children with severe medical problems, and into other Medicaid programs that were not equipped for that kind of care. (CNN)

Trump to Fund ACA CSR for August

After a brutal CBO report this week, the Trump Administration has signaled it will fund cost sharing reduction payments for the Affordable Care Act for August. According to the CBO report, ceasing the CSR payments would spike exchange individual market premiums by 20%, and cost $194 billion above baseline by 2026. ACA subsidy rates are calculated by as a factor of the cost of certain plans on the exchanges. While cutting the payments to insurers would ostensibly decrease costs, the costs would be more than offset by the premium spike that would follow, and the automatic increase in subsidies to those eligible. It is unclear, however, if the Trump Administration plans to make a definitive statement on the continuing issuance of CSR payments. Insurers have repeatedly cited ongoing policy uncertainty from the Trump Administration as a major component of 2018 premium increases. (Business Insider)

ACS, Cleveland Clinic Withdraw Fundraisers from Trump Club

Following last week’s violent conflict in Charlottesville, Virginia, and President Trump’s multiple, equivocal statements on the white supremacist demonstrations, the American Cancer Society and the Cleveland Clinic have both decided to cancel fundraising events that were scheduled to take place at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago private club in Palm Beach, Florida. The ACS has held their annual fundraiser at the club since 2012, and the Cleveland Clinic has held its annual fundraiser at the resort since 2008. (AP)

Watch Out for the Solar Eclipse

If you’re planning on checking out next Monday’s total solar eclipse, be sure to take care of your eyes when you do so. If you’ve planned ahead, you probably already have a pair of “solar glasses” that block out the sun’s dangerous (to your eyes, anyway) ultraviolet radiation. If not, fear not – you can always do what they did back in the day, and make a pinhole projector. Just get a largish sheet of stiff paper and cut a hole in the center of it. Tape some smooth foil tautly over the hole and push a pin through the center of the foil. Et voila! When the eclipse happens, hold out the paper and look at the projected image of the sun on the ground. You’ll be able to see the moon’s encroaching silhouette in the projected image. (Stat News, Wired)

Take Care Down There

According to a new report, 3% of all emergency room visits for urinary injuries were due to injuries sustained while grooming pubic hair. Among men and women who groom their pubic hair (67% and 85%, respectively), men and women suffered similar rates of injuries (24% versus 27%). While the injuries are generally mild, they do carry a slight risk of infection, and can increase your chances for contracting a sexually transmitted infection. (CBS)

Podcasts

Listen in—the conversations we need to have about racism, health, and medicine

Research in the Lurch -- Rebecca Cooney talks with Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) and others about the Trump Administration's decision to cancel teen pregnancy prevention research grants midway, with no warning

Rebecca Cooney discusses the new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report on opioids with members of the committee